Meilisearch Has a Free API That Adds Search to Your App in 5 Minutes

#meilisearch #search #api #opensource

Meilisearch is an open-source search engine that delivers instant, typo-tolerant search results. It is like Algolia, but free and self-hosted.

What Is Meilisearch?

Meilisearch is a lightning-fast, open-source search engine built in Rust. Sub-50ms searches, typo tolerance, faceted filtering — all out of the box.

Quick Start

# Docker
docker run -p 7700:7700 getmeili/meilisearch

# Or download binary
curl -L https://install.meilisearch.com | sh
./meilisearch --master-key='your-key'

The API

Add Documents

curl -s -X POST 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/products/documents' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer your-key' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '[
    {"id": 1, "name": "MacBook Pro", "category": "laptops", "price": 1999, "brand": "Apple"},
    {"id": 2, "name": "ThinkPad X1", "category": "laptops", "price": 1499, "brand": "Lenovo"},
    {"id": 3, "name": "iPhone 16", "category": "phones", "price": 999, "brand": "Apple"},
    {"id": 4, "name": "Galaxy S25", "category": "phones", "price": 899, "brand": "Samsung"}
  ]'

Search (instant, typo-tolerant)

# Typo tolerance: "macbok" finds "MacBook"
curl -s 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/products/search' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer your-key' \
  -d '{"q": "macbok"}' | jq '.hits[].name'
# Output: "MacBook Pro"

# With filters
curl -s 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/products/search' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer your-key' \
  -d '{"q": "laptop", "filter": "price < 1500", "sort": ["price:asc"]}'

Configure Index

# Set filterable and sortable attributes
curl -s -X PATCH 'http://localhost:7700/indexes/products/settings' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer your-key' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "filterableAttributes": ["category", "brand", "price"],
    "sortableAttributes": ["price", "name"],
    "searchableAttributes": ["name", "brand", "category"]
  }'

JavaScript SDK

import { MeiliSearch } from 'meilisearch'

const client = new MeiliSearch({
  host: 'http://localhost:7700',
  apiKey: 'your-key'
})

// Search
const results = await client.index('products').search('laptop', {
  filter: ['price < 2000', 'brand = Apple'],
  sort: ['price:asc'],
  limit: 10,
})

console.log(`Found ${results.estimatedTotalHits} products in ${results.processingTimeMs}ms`)

Meilisearch vs Alternatives

Feature	Meilisearch	Algolia	Elasticsearch
Open source	Yes	No	Yes (partial)
Setup time	1 minute	5 min	30+ min
Typo tolerance	Built-in	Built-in	Config needed
Speed	Sub-50ms	Sub-50ms	100-500ms
Free tier	Unlimited (self-hosted)	10K req/mo	Self-hosted
RAM usage	Low	N/A	High

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